Typhoon Hagupit smashes the Philippines; deaths recorded as interior secretary warns 'lashing will be severe' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Description: At least two people are killed as Typhoon Hagupit crashes into eastern Philippines, bringing intense rain, strong winds and threatening to wreak more destruction in areas still bearing the scars of Super Typhoon Haiyan.
Keywords: typhoon hagupit, super typhoon haiyan, philippines, super typhoon, eastern samar, central philippines, evacuation centres
Date: 2014-12-07T01:17:48+1100

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# Typhoon Hagupit smashes the Philippines; deaths recorded as interior secretary warns 'lashing will be severe'

By Shirley Escalante, wires

Updated December 07, 2014 09:47:10

Photo: Typhoon Hagupit has brought strong waves and winds to the central Philippines. (Reuters: Erwin Frames)
Related Story: Evacuations underway as Typhoon Hagupit nears Philippines
Map: Philippines

At least two people have been killed after Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in east of the Philippines, authorities in the country say.

The category three storm, which is tracking north-west across the central Philippines, brought intense rain and strong winds, threatening to wreak more destruction in areas still bearing the scars of 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan.

Officials say two people were killed when the eastern provincial city of Borongan was hit by the storm.

Torrential rains and winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour lashed the city for four straight hours when the typhoon landed.

Almost 700,000 people were evacuated before the typhoon, known locally as Ruby, hit, in what a United Nations agency said was one of the world's biggest peacetime evacuations.

External Link: Video shows waves crashing on island of Cebu before Typhoon Hagupit made landfall

Floods and landslides have already been reported in the nation's central region, while four provinces have declared a state of emergency.

As the storm arrived, power was cut across most of the central Philippine island of Samar and nearby Leyte province, including Tacloban City, the centre of super typhoon Haiyan's devastation last year.

"The wind is blowing so strongly, it's like it is whirling. The waters have risen now," Mabel Evardone, an official of the coastal town of Sulat in Eastern Samar, told local radio.

Typhoon Hagupit weakened to a category three storm, two levels below a super typhoon, but could still unleash huge destruction with torrential rain and potentially disastrous storm surges of up to 4.5 metres, the weather bureau PAGASA said.

## Typhoon expected to make five landfalls

With winds of up to 175kmh near the centre and gusts of up to 210kmh, the storm picked up speed as it moved north-northwest at 16 kmh.

External Link: Atom tweet

"Ruby's lashing will be severe," interior secretary Manuel Roxas said.

"Let's be alert. Let's evacuate to prevent any harm to your families."

Cecil Laguardia from aid agency World Vision said people were scared.

"The winds were howling. It's almost like there's a giant breathing machine outside and nobody can really sleep," she said.

"When you go out of the building you see that the streets are deserted. It's eerie. It's almost like a ghost town."

Hagupit is expected to make five landfalls as it crosses the Philippines before leaving the country by Wednesday.

Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled about 100 flights to central and southern Philippines.

Air and sea travel was suspended and six domestic airports were closed.

More than 700,000 residents of low-lying villages and landslide-prone areas fled to schools, civic centres, town halls, gyms and churches, the national disaster agency said.

At least 50 municipalities in the central Philippines and the southern part of the country's main Luzon island were at risk of storm surges, with the eye of the storm set to cross four provinces, the Science and Technology department said.

The typhoon was unlikely to hit the capital Manila, home to around 12 million people, the agency said.

Photo: People take shelter inside an evacuation centre after evacuating from their homes due to Typhoon Hagupit in Surigao city, southern Philippines. (Reuters)

## Aid organisations prepared but concerned

Relief agency Refugees International said in a statement it was "deeply concerned" that evacuation centres may not be safe.

"A damage assessment of designated evacuation centres in typhoon-affected areas indicated that in some places - such as Eastern Samar, where Hagupit is headed - less than 10 per cent of evacuation centres were likely to withstand future typhoons," the group said prior to the storm's arrival.

The storm is expected to take the same track as Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall.

External Link: CARE Tweet

The islands of Samar and Leyte were worst-hit by 250kmh winds and storm surges brought by Haiyan in November last year.

About 25,000 people in Eastern Samar and Leyte still live in tents, shelters and bunkhouses.

But aid agencies on the ground say they are better prepared this time around.

Jacqui Symonds from the CARE Australia's humanitarian and emergency response unit arrived in Manila to help assess the damage and support communities in affected areas.

"There's a lot of fear and a lot of trepidation about what is going to happen. [The typhoon] is still very recent in people's memories," she told the ABC.

"People are very worried but also things are a lot more organised than they were last year as well."

The United States offered to send transport aircraft and medical and relief workers.

Other foreign governments also sent word they were ready to help the disaster-prone south-east Asian nation.

Soldiers have been deployed to urban centres, particularly in Tacloban City, where widespread looting broke out after Haiyan.

"The soldiers will help our police counterparts in maintaining peace and order, and prevent looting incidents," armed forces spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla Jr said.

ABC/Reuters

- Photo: Stranded passengers sleep on chairs as ferry ships cancel in anticipation of Typhoon Hagupit at the north harbour in Manila. (Reuters: Mark De Mayo)
- Photo: People take shelter inside an evacuation centre after evacuating from their homes due to Typhoon Hagupit in Surigao city, southern Philippines. (Reuters)
- Photo: People take shelter inside a Catholic church after evacuating their homes due to Typhoon Hagupit in Tacloban city, central Philippines. (Reuters: Rowel Montes)
- Photo: People wait for relief goods outside a Catholic church after evacuating their homes due to super-typhoon Hagupit in Tacloban city, central Philippines December 5, 2014. (REUTERS/Rowel Montes)
- Photo: Philippine meteorologists monitor and plot the direction of Typhoon Hagupit at their offices in suburban Manila. (AFP: Jay Directo)
- Photo: Residents crowd the entrance of a shopping mall to shop for food supplies in Tacloban City, central Philippines, ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Hagupit. (AFP: Lito Bagunas)
- Photo: High waves and strong winds pound a fishport building, hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)
- Photo: A resident braves strong rain hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)
- Photo: Strong winds and rain pound the seawall hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)
- Photo: High waves and strong winds pound the seawall hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)
- Photo: A resident cycles around an empty street hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi on December 7, 2014. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)
- Photo: The view from the streets of Tacloban city in the Philippines after Typhoon Hagupit hit. (Twitter: @tetaypatis)
- Photo: A resident living along the coastal area scans the horizon watching for sign of storm surge hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi on December 7, 2014. (AFP: Ted Aljibe)

Gallery: Typhoon Hagupit in pictures

Topics: storm-disaster, storm-event, disasters-and-accidents, relief-and-aid-organisations, philippines, asia

First posted December 07, 2014 01:17:48

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